Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Ricky Palermo, occasional guest blogger on finance, business, and accounting. Ricky writes for Crunch, a company that provides online accounting software. Time and money are two important elements that can either propel or ruin a business.

Accounting can suck both time and money from your business as fast as anything. Below are 7 ideas that can help you deal with the most important business accounting tasks in a truly efficient way.

Top 7 Ideas for Managing Biz Accounting

First thing to know about business accounting is how it relates to specific functions, which are vital for all businesses. These functionsdo not only help business owners keep track of their budgets, but also allows them to discover the best possible investment strategies so that their business can flourish.

Additionally, be aware that a person who finds out how to use specific accounting functions correctly, can easily determine his or her business’s profitability. Managing your business accounting is one of the most essential things to make sure that your business is managed well.

1. Accounting Functions:Make a list of the accounting functions that relate to your business. Discover the functions you should implement in the future, including fixed asset management, inventory management, taxes, investing, banking, accounts receivable and accounts payable. Understanding all these accounting areas is very important in order to make sure that your business functions within the legal frame.

2. Accounting Process Map: Draw a process map, which you should be checking whenever you have specific ambiguities with regard to different business accounting tasks. Having a map can help you to comprehend your business prospects so you can make the best decisions. The process map should include many entries that can help you to visualize the flow of specific business information.

3. Determine the Risks: Determine the risks that relate to your business to prevent those actions that may cause troubles. Obviously, the risks that can influence your business differ a lot based on the niche and company. However, some common problems that most businesses encounter relate to are fake vendors and wrong customer charges.

4. Get Business Accounting Software: A good software solution can help you manage various accounting tasks easily. Furthermore, a great business software solution allows end users to set up various internal controls, which can prevent various losses from occurring. For example, such a system can help you to restrict the access of an employee, who completes various accounts receivable tasks, to balance a checking account. Additionally, such a system can also deny the access of different employees to create new vendor records and embezzle funds.

5. Create Proper Policy: If you intend to manage your business accounting easily, you must also create specific terms and conditions, which are meant to clarify various business-related aspects. These should include regular audits, trainings, solutions for potential accounting problems, and so on. Proper policy can make sure everything goes smoothly, even when you are not around.

6. Trainings: Make sure your employees receive appropriate accounting training, which can clarify any ambiguities they might have. This ensures that every single person in your business can make the best possible accounting decisions when necessary.

7. Backup Plan: Even if you run a very small business, you should always have a backup plan. For example, if you choose online accounting software, which comes along with specific cloud computing functions, you should still save all of your data on removable storage. Although this can require you to invest money in various hardware, it can help prevent losses of data.

California loans made pursuant to the California Financing Law, Division 9 (commencing with Section 22000) of the Finance Code. All such loans made through Lendio Partners, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lendio, Inc. and a licensed finance lender/broker, California Financing Law License No. 60DBO-44694.